1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data networking system and a method for networking data, and in particular, a system and method for automatically managing machine tool data and providing the data to a remote terminal over a network.
2. Background Art
The ever-increasing emphasis on product quality continues to put pressure on manufacturers to find new ways to produce high quality products without increasing production time or otherwise increasing manufacturing costs. Inherent in this high quality, low cost dichotomy is a need to reduce scrap, while obtaining the longest possible life from manufacturing tools and equipment. Thus, increasing the number of tooling changes and/or decreasing the time between machine tool maintenance may increase product quality, but it may result in an unnecessary increase in tooling costs and/or lost production time.
Over time, manufacturers have developed systems and methods of predictive and preventative maintenance. Such systems may include a scheduled tool change based on a number of parts produced, or scheduled machine down time, during which bearings and other components may be replaced prior to their having an adverse effect on product quality. In order to implement these systems in a cost effective manner, or to reduce the frequency of these preventative maintenance tasks, decision-makers need information. In particular, information that is indicative of historical trends is useful, so that accurate predictions can be made regarding future production runs. In addition, the ability to isolate particular problem areas is also useful; this helps to concentrate efforts where they will have the most impact and produce the most benefit.
Toward this end, manufacturers have continued to analyze machine tools and their associated components in an effort to gather information they can use to make efficacious decisions regarding their production systems and processes. One type of machine tool analysis used is a vibration analysis. Information gathered from this type of analysis may be indicative of a variety of different production problems.
One system and method of characterizing a machining process using vibrational signatures of machines is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,663,894, issued to Seth et al. on Sep. 2, 1997. Seth et al. describes characterizing the vibrational signatures of machines by discriminating vibrational activity at various positions on the machines. This is done both with and without machining loads. Both time and frequency domain analysis may then be stored in a database for future comparison and tracking.
In addition to gathering vibration data with and without machining loads, it may also be desirable to associate vibration data with particular operations performed on a machine. Once this data is gathered, it would then be desirable to collect it for storage on a network server that can be accessed by one or more terminals remotely located from the machining area. In general, traditional monitoring systems are based on individual tool condition analysis, and are used primarily for tool breakage. Templates are used, but trend analysis is not performed. Because data, such as vibration data, can occupy a large amount of storage space, and bandwidth when it is being transferred, it would also be desirable to reduce the size of the data, while still providing operation specific, and even tool specific, data that can be used to evaluate the machining operations.